Khaleda files petition against govt move to shift trial to Keraniganj

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has filed a petition challenging the legality of the government’s move to shift her trial in the Niko graft case to the new central jail in Keraniganj from the now defunct jailhouse in Old Dhaka.

Khaleda’s lawyer Kayser Kamal filed the petition with the High Court on Sunday. The plea could be heard by the bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Md Khairul Alam on Monday, he said.

The government on May 12 issued a gazette notification which said that the trial would be conducted in a makeshift court in Keraniganj.

The petition contends that the notification violates articles 17 and 31 of the Constitution along with sections 9(1) and (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The plea seeks a rule on the legality of transferring the trial proceedings conducted by the Special Judge Court-9 at the old jailhouse to a makeshift court in Keraniganj Central Jail’s Building No. 2.

Khaleda also pleaded for a stay on the gazette notice until the matter is settled.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been in the abandoned jailhouse on Nazimuddin Road in the capital since February last year serving total 17 years in jail after conviction in two corruption cases.

She is also accused of different charges in a number of other cases.

The trials were under way at a temporary court set inside the old jailhouse.     

The law ministry on May 12 issued a circular on shifting the trials to a makeshift court in Keraniganj jail as Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the prison for female inmates there was ready for the transfer of Khaleda from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, where the 73-year-old is undergoing treatment.

On May 21, Kayser Kamal, a lawyer for Khaleda, sent a legal notice to the government challenging the circular on shifting the trials to the court at Keraniganj jail.

The circular runs contrary to Article 35 of the Constitution, which stipulates “public trial”, Kayser said, citing the legal notice. The government had been given a 24-hour ultimatum to scrap the circular under the notice.